“Twist is a storyteller of natural grace, completely at ease with his place in the story and where it’s going,” writes Audrey Journal.Īnd the Sydney Arts Guide called Jali “a wonderful accomplishment both in terms of writing and acting” “ This is why we came back to the theatre.” “ Twist is a star,” declared the Sydney Morning Herald in a four star review. There are a lot of stories that I share in Jali that wouldn’t translate in a comedy club where people are drinking beer,” Oliver says.Īfter going through development with the Griffin Theatre Company, JALI premiered in early 2021 to rave reviews and an entirely sold-out season. “I wanted to elevate the storytelling form. Within a week of his arrival he had written the one-man play Jali (meaning historian or storyteller), telling the tale of his family’s journey. That was the year he decided to make the move to Sydney, and to begin telling stories in a new way. In 2017 he entered the RAW Comedy competition, and made it to the national finals in Melbourne. He started taking the stage in Queensland, becoming a regular at the Sit Down Comedy Club in Brisbane and Based Comedy on the Gold Coast.

Then eighteen, Oliver already knew he was funny, and now he was in a country where comedy clubs and open mic sessions allowed him to prove it. After acceptance into the Australian government’s refugee intake, the family arrived in Ipswich in 2014 to begin a new life. Rwandan-born Aussie Oliver Twist is a comic, playwright and actor who makes his own opportunities after a childhood watching his parents do the same.Īfter fleeing the Rwandan civil war at the age of four, Oliver spent his childhood in Malawi, first in a refugee camp, and later in the city where his mother and father started a small convenience store.

Oliver & twist